Health Insurance accross state lines?

In September, the Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI) announced the results of a Zogby consumer poll that revealed 72 percent of Americans supported the idea of allowing individuals to purchase health insurance from firms in other states, provided those firms are state-regulated. Eighty-two percent of respondents said they would be likely to purchase a policy across state lines if they were paying exorbitant premiums in their home state.

The cost of health insurance in many states is much higher than necessary, in large part because of heavy-handed state mandates such as community rating (which effectively shifts the cost of insurance premiums from an older, less-healthy generation to the younger, healthier generation) and guaranteed-issue (which requires that all persons must be issued an insurance policy regardless of their health history or lifestyles).

As I described in an eight-part series for Health Care News (see 'How Eight States Destroyed Their Individual Insurance Markets,' http://heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15675), such mandates have driven up premium costs to the point that millions of people have dropped insurance, pay severely inflated premiums, or rely on state-run Medicaid coverage. Unfortunately, current state and federal laws prohibit individuals from buying health insurance across state borders.

According to CAHI Director Merrill Matthews Jr., 'Congress needs to take action to ensure that all Americans have other options. Judging by the results of this poll, Congress has the support to do just that.'

That would be a good start for a Happy New Year!"